Print device fonts are important to users because a font is a primary component which defines the look of a document. A likely market exists to distribute print device fonts, but users, to a large extent, continue to rely upon fonts bundled with a print device when purchased and software generated fonts which are temporarily downloaded to a print device during a print job. The former situation restricts font choice, while the latter is inefficient. Studies show that print device-installed fonts improve performance by up to twenty percent compared to temporarily downloaded print device fonts. Performance gains are especially prominent in complicated character sets, such as Asian character sets.
Three conventional methods largely define the state of the art for print device-installed font distribution. Print device manufacturers include a set of fonts in the print device ROM. Once bundled, such fonts are fixed and may become obsolete as operating system fonts change. In addition, users are often compelled to accept a set of unwanted fonts as a package with a print device. Additional font packages come in the form of plug-in accessories, e.g., font cards. The plug-in accessory method of font distribution shares the same drawbacks as fixed ROM print fonts. Plug-in accessories also raise hardware compatibility issues and the distribution issues connected with a hardware product including, for example, slow distribution, prediction of demand, maintenance of inventories and installation support.
A third method of font distribution is generally referred to as a semi-permanent download. A user acquires fonts for the user's operating system. The user, using an external resource manager program, may then download selected fonts semi-permanently to storage on the print device independent of a particular print job. Once downloaded in this manner, the font appears to be permanent in that it remains available to multiple print jobs, but may be erased using the external resource manager. HP Resource Manager is an example of such a program. The fonts are loaded to a flash memory, a disk memory, RAM, or similar memory, and become available for use by subsequent print jobs. Installing the fonts is a complicated process, however, requiring an installer to convert the font from its native format into a print device specific format, download it to the print device, and configure the driver or other software on the operating system to use the newly installed font. The program which downloads to the print device may be incompatible with certain fonts and formats. The fonts may also be incompatible with certain print devices.